Letters to the Editor for December 20, 2012

If Mr. Lloyd Kramer really believes that our foothill communities are not known as centers of enlightenment, and people of this county are incapable of sharing his dismay over the shooting deaths of innocent children then should we not wonder why he has chosen to live among us.

After living in Tuolumne County for 45 years, I know that the people here as elsewhere are in the deepest throes of shock, grief and sorrow just as we were in the 9/11 attack. No one person has an exclusive claim on dismay and sorrow, regardless of their “enlightenment.”

Further, he instructs us to read the Second Ammendment and learn that bearing arms is a right only for militia members. Mr. Kramer might himself read the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Heller (54 U.S. 2008) which roundly rejected this argument and affirming that private arms ownership is an individual right not connected to militia service.

I know that anger is part of the grief process, but it shouldn’t entitle anyone to insult their neighbors, even if you believe that they don’t meet your standard of enlightenment.

I too am angry that those innocent defenseless women and babies were savaged in this demonic attack, and there was no one there to protect them.

Jake Jacobsen

Twain Harte

The electorate, not Obama, is the threat

To the Editor:

George Durkee (Letters, Dec 11) sounds like he’s living the good life. That’s a good thing, but so many Americans are facing unemployment, stagnant wages, increasing taxes, fixed income retirements, etc, thanks to the policies of the Obama administration. Yes, it’s important to stop and smell the roses but when one of the Obama minions states that nearly 50% of Americans that voted for Romney are in need of clown noses, it’s just more evidence that we are entering a very dark period in our nation’s history.

I’m guessing over the next several years Americans will come to clearly understand what it means to be equal in poverty, this while the political class, along with government employees and retirees, dance and party.

The Durkee letter reminds me of the unattributable quote that his been going around the internet for several years…

“The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president.”

The good news — Tuolumne County — Romney 56.4 percent; Calaveras County — Romney 57.0 percent! We got it right!